BRITAIN’S new food-policing unit is to target the burgeoning trade in fake wine in one of its first investigations into fraudulent and mislabelled food.

The move follows growing evidence, including seizures by police and trading standards teams, that a small but significant proportion of the mid-market wines most favoured by British consumers is mislabelled or fake. The scale of the problem, with a potential value of millions of pounds, has pushed it on to the priority list for the unit, which was set up in the wake of last year’s horsemeat scandal and will start work in January.

The £2m-a-year unit will be part of the Food Standards Agency, which said: “Wine adulteration has been on the FSA’s radar for some time. It provides criminals